The iPad mini and the new iPods are big news for Apple. Not because the products themselves are swish, but because they’ve been ushered into existence with the best ads that Apple’s managed to make for some years. Welcome back to the top tier of ad-making… Read more

Microsoft’s 2012 is a pretty busy one. On top of launching Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, it’s also found time to bring about its own cross-platform Spotify rival. Xbox Music is finally landing tomorrow, but what does it actually do? Read more

Odd one, this. Samsung seems to be taking aim at Apple’s new iPod touch, but it’s doing so with a phone, rather than a standalone MP4 player. Can a Galaxy-branded music phone be the new Walkman? Read more

The iPhone 5 is certainly a pretty looking thing, but one of the design choices that’s probably going to enrage a lot of buyers is the new Lightning charging dock and cable. Sure, the phone comes with one, but that’s not going to mean a lot to the kind of people who like to keep chargers everywhere. Luckily, help is at hand. Read more

Buying earphones is a right minefield. You start out your music-listening career with whatever came with your player of choice, then graduate to something a bit more noise-cancelly, then you start buying buds that cost around £30-£60. Then these inevitably break so you buy a similar pair and so on and so forth until, at some point, you ask yourself if, this time, it'd worth spending a serious amount of cash on their replacement.
Well, is it? I’ve been using the £199 Atomic Floyd SuperDarts + Remote to try and find out. Read more

Apple tends to update its iPods around September every year, and this year probably won’t be any different. What will be different, though, is the nano. According to sources close to Apple’s manufacturing chain, the iPod nano is set to shed its square design and go back to the way things were... Read more

I’ve been to see a few music streaming services recently. I’ve been a long-time user of Spotify, but in the last month I’ve gone for briefings with both Sony (for its Music Unlimited service) and now Napster, which is relaunching in the UK as a streaming service owned by US company Rhapsody.
Apparently, now’s the time to get in on the streaming action; the market is growing. But if that’s the case, what can you do to differentiate yourself from the big players? And how do you shake off such an infamous reputation as the one attached to Napster? That’s exactly what I asked Napster Europe's General Manager, Thorsten Schliesche...
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